Wireless local area networks (WLANs) and wireless wide area networks (WWANs) provide wireless communication services to portable devices where the WLANs typically provide services within geographical service areas that are smaller than the geographical areas serviced by WWANs. Examples of WWANs include systems that operate in accordance with 2.5G (such as cdma2000), 3G (such as UMTS, WiMax), and other types of technologies, where each base station of the WWAN is typically designed to cover a service area having a size measured in miles. The term WWAN is used primarily to distinguish this group of diverse technologies from WLANs that typically have smaller service areas on the order of 100 to 300 feet per base station. Base stations in WLANs are typically referred to as access points. An access point may be connected to the Internet, intranet, or other network through wires or wirelessly through a WWAN. Examples of WLANs include systems using technologies such as Wi-Fi and other wireless protocols in accordance with IEEE 802.11 standards. WLANs typically provide higher bandwidth services than WWANs at the expense of non-ubiquitous coverage whereas WWANs provide increased coverage areas at the cost of bandwidth and/or capacity. It is often necessary or advantageous to determine a geographical location of a wireless communication device. Some conventional techniques include using global positioning satellite (GPS) systems to determine the location where characteristics of signals received at the wireless communication device from multiple satellites in the GPS system are used to determine the device location. Some WWAN systems evaluate signals received at base stations from the wireless communication device to determine its location. For example, Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT) techniques are used by conventional WWANs to determine location. Some conventional positioning systems utilize combinations of satellite and base station information to determine position. Unfortunately, conventional techniques for determining device location are sometimes less then optimum. For example, GPS techniques require the wireless communication device to receive signals from at least three satellites to determine device location and where the wireless communication device is located in a building, tunnel or low area such as canyon or ravine, the location sometimes can not be determined. Further, AFLT systems require the wireless access device to be within the range of several base stations for an accurate determination of the device location. Therefore, the accuracy or ability to determine the location of a wireless communication device depends on the terrain, obstructions, and positions of systems components relative to the wireless communication device.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus, system, and method for determining a geographical location of a wireless communication device.